Parent University: A guide to Understanding Site, District and State Assessments

Parent University: A guide to Understanding Site, District and State Assessments

The two presenters, Ms. Gonzalez (first grade) and Mrs. Verdugo (sixth grade) facilitated an excellent workshop on assessment.  I wish I had a copy of their PowerPoint because it was done so professionally.  Let me share a bit of what we learned:

• Most people assume that test scores depend on good/bad teaching, but this is not correct.  It’s cyclical….first, a teacher needs to assess students first so that she knows what curriculum to develop and how to adjust her instruction in the classroom.
• Since there are multiple intelligences to account for and various learning styles, teachers need to have a variety of assessments for students: Doing this will account for individual differences among students. If a student continually struggles with the content on any given assessment, then the teacher needs to change the style of testing and teaching!
• Assessment can include: traditional tests, projects, presentations, portfolios, reading logs, and papers.
• Assessment should serve 3 purposes;

1. for the student to know how s/he is doing in the class;
2. for the teacher’s to  know how to teach;
3. for the parents to keep abreast of the progress that their children are making or not making. This is where most parents fall short.  By the time many parents realize that his/her child is not doing well, many months have passed and the student has not received appropriate help. 

• Reading assessment can include the following:

Running Records

IRI- Independent Reading Inventory

CELDT (California English Language Development Test)

4-Sight (precursor for the California State Test

Theme Skills (Reading, Writing & Grammar)

Spiral Learning (California Summative Tests)

Teacher-Created and District Created Tests

District Trimester- Math, Writing and Language Arts

State- CST (California State Test)

Grade-level release questions

The two teachers also shared 4 websites:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp  (Grade-level release questions)

http://www.starfall.com/ (phonics & reading)

https://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/ (math)

http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ (science)

If these two instructors teach the way they presented tonight, I am truly impressed! The amount of material was just enough.  Given the fact that this is a dry subject to discuss, they made the workshop interactive and fun!